Zora Neale Hurston vs. Langston Hughes on the African American Experience Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes were great writers, but their attitudes to With regard to their personal experience as an African Americans differed in many ways. These differences can be attributed to a variety of reasons ranging from gender to life experience, but even though they had different perceptions regarding the African American experience, they both shared a common goal: racial equality across the 'art. To accurately delve into the minds of writers, one must first consider the authors' backgrounds such as their childhood experience, education, as well as their early adulthood to truly understand how this affected their writing in terms of similarities and differences in voices and themes used with the works “How it feels to be colored” from “The Negro Mother” by Hurston and Hughes. The importance of these factors is directly related to how each author came to find their literary inspiration and voice assigned to their works. In the case of Zora Neale Hurston, even though she was born in Alabama on January 7, 1891, she always referred to the rural environment. community of Eatonville, Florida, where she moved with her family as a child and became her hometown. Coincidentally, Eatonville was the first incorporated black township in the country, which likely contributed to Hurston's lack of feelings of inferiority at a time when racism was rampant. During her childhood years in Eatonville, she was able to see the world from a completely different perspective than most African Americans of that period. Instead of segregation, inequality and poverty, she saw her elders as productive and revered members of society. She lived a happy childhood until she was... middle of paper ... above all, she was a proud woman. Hughes, on the other hand, chose to revel in his heritage, his primary focus being African American history and the many tribulations associated with his race. Both had the same goal, racial equality through art, but chose to go in completely different directions to achieve it. Works Cited Abcarian, Richard. Literature: The Human Experience: Reading and Writing. : Bedford/Saint Martin's, 2012. Print. Hughes, Langston. The Negro Mother and other dramatic recitations. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1971. Print. McLeod, Laura. “Zora Neale Hurston: Overview.” Feminist writers. Ed. Pamela Kester-Shelton. Detroit: St. James Press, 1996. Literary Resource Center. Internet. April 18, 2014. Wasley, Aidan. "An Overview of 'Mother and Son.'" Poetry for Students. Detroit: Gale. Literary Resource Center. Internet. April 18. 2014.